Child labour decreased by 38% in last decade: ILO

Geneva, Jan 16 : The International Labour Organization (ILO), a Geneva-based UN agency, announced that child labour has decreased by 38 per cent in the last decade but warned that the raging Covid-19 pandemic has considerably worsened the situation with 152 million children still affected.
In a statement issued on Friday, the ILO said that the Covid-19 crisis has brought additional poverty to these already vulnerable populations and may reverse years of progress in the fight against child labour, reports Xinhua news agency.
“School closures have aggravated the situation and many millions of children are working to contribute to the family income. The pandemic has also made women, men and children more vulnerable to exploitation,” the Organization said.
ILO data showed that progress across regions is uneven. Almost half of child labour happens in Africa (72 million children), followed by Asia and the Pacific (62 million).
Meanwhile, 70 per cent of children in child labour work in agriculture, mainly in subsistence and commercial farming and livestock herding, the report said. Almost half of all these children work in occupations or situations considered hazardous for their health and lives.
The ILO said that “joint and decisive action could reverse this trend”.